


Shouting under my feet

by Merel



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Books, Camping, Gen, Gym Challenges (Pokemon), Haunted Houses, POV Third Person Limited, Pokemon Journey, Swearing, Teenagers, rivals to still rivals but now slightly friendlier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merel/pseuds/Merel
Summary: “If you want me to go with you to the mansion, you should just ask. It could be a good training spot.”“That,” Hughes wagged his finger in his face, “sounds like something who is afraid of getting all his pokémon hurt and having to crawl back through the woods to the pokémon-center would say.”Arceus, he was such adick.
Relationships: Maes Hughes & Roy Mustang
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	Shouting under my feet

**Author's Note:**

> A tiny bit of background info: the gym challenge is based on Galar's, so a lot of trainers apply and then there's a challenge season with a tournament at the end of it, but the gyms can be challenged in any order.

“Aw, is Mustang scared to go into the big bad mansion?” 

He was trying to stay calm, he really was. “If you want me to go with you to the mansion, you should just ask. It could be a good training spot.”

“That,” Hughes wagged his finger in his face, “sounds like something who is afraid of getting all his pokémon hurt and having to crawl back through the woods to the pokémon-center would say.”

He batted Hughes’ hand away and turned back to the old mansion. It looked harmless in the bright sunlight, if a little decrepit, but ghost pokémon weren’t a joke, especially not when going alone. If that fucker went in there without him, there was a chance he wouldn’t come out, and then what? Then Roy would feel  _ guilty.  _

“Fine, I’ll come with you, if you go through the cave systems with me.”

“Scared to go into the mansion and through the caves alone? Maybe you should quit the challenge now, Mustang.” 

“Do we have a deal or no?” 

Hughes shrugged. “Yeah, sure, I’ll be your bodyguard for the next few days.”

Arceus, he was such a  _ dick. _ Hughes was smirking, but Roy was sure that smirk would fuck off very soon. “Have you ever been in a haunted place before?”

“Nah, but I’ve got Sneasel and,” he pulled a standard pokéball out of his pocket, “I managed to catch an Impidimp.” 

“Wow, that’s amazing.” He made sure to say it as sarcastically as possible, but Hughes opened the gate and kept smirking. 

“Yup.” 

He could practically feel Fang staring at him in disapproval. Roy still followed Hughes through the gate, the Umbreon walking next to him. The gate closed with an ominous clang, leaving them in an overgrown yard. They walked up to the door in silence and the house did seem a lot scarier up close, now that he could see shapes moving behind the windows. He swallowed away the lump in his throat. “Hey, if there’s mostly Litwick in there, and not much else, I’m out of here.” 

Hughes stopped and turned around, hopefully using his fucking brain for the first time in his entire life. “Yeah, whatever.” 

Okay, nevermind. It was a confirmation though, so Roy followed him up the steps. The door opened with a slight push, showing what must have once been an ornate welcoming hall, including a grand staircase and a set of armor on each side, but the tiled floor was cracked at a few points and the wallpaper was flaking off. Hughes whistled.

“Fancy.” 

Roy hummed and moved further inside. The rest of the hall was bare and he’d half-expected the door to slam shut behind them, but it stayed open. The light shining through it and the gaps in the boarded-up windows was enough to show a few doors leading to other rooms. Hughes started poking one of the armors, and Roy was almost thankful for the sudden drop in temperature. Gengar were never alone, but at least that meant there was no Chandelure hanging around, they didn’t tolerate other fully-evolved pokémon. He noticed Hughes blowing out a breath and rubbing his arms. His Sneasel was looking around too, maybe he was smarter than his trainer and realized how completely fucked they’d be if Gengar actually tried to attack them. 

“Sheesh, is there a spooky air conditioner here or something?” 

If it wasn’t  _ Hughes _ and if they weren’t in a mansion haunted by easily pissed-off ghost pokémon Roy would have laughed. As it was, he reached into his hip bag and grabbed the dusk ball, opening it with a click and red light, until Ella was sitting on the dusty carpet. 

“Well, there’s one Litwick.” 

_ Shut the fuck up. _ “Yes.” Ella blinked against the light, then stared at a dark corner of the hall. Aha. “Uhm, it could be a Rotom, maybe, the fan form?” 

“Oh. Rotom would be cool.” 

He didn’t know if Hughes actually was that dumb or if he was smart enough to play along. There were no electric outlets anywhere in the walls, the chandelier had no light bulbs on it, why would a Rotom ever be here? But no,  _ Rotom would be cool. _ Wait.

“Was that a joke?” 

Hughes actually looked  _ proud. _ “Heh, yeah. Anyway, I don’t think there’s Rotom here, I can’t see any electric stuff.” He pointed to Ella. “I was just trying to  _ lighten _ the mood.” 

Roy dug his fingernails into his palm. Couldn’t he take anything seriously? There was a Gengar watching them from the corner, and Hughes was making puns. Not that it wasn’t the right move to play dumb, but Roy wasn’t so sure that Hughes was playing. Hughes stuck out his tongue at whatever expression was on Roy’s face right now. 

“We should probably move on, there’s no ghosties here.” 

If he was pretending to be an idiot, he had it down to an artform. 

Twenty minutes and five rooms later and no sign of ghosts except for the Gengar following them around. So far the most exciting thing had been Hughes letting out his Impidimp and it making a beeline for a very stressed Ella, but she’d floated off the dusty carpet whispering indistinctly all the way to the top of Roy’s head, where she was currently messing up his hair whenever she turned to face the Gengar. Hughes had cackled at that, and Roy could really see why he was so happy to have caught an Impidimp. 

Roy had watched his first Gym battle and lurked on the forums with threads speculating about his unexpected win. It was true, Roy had thought he was insane when he began with a Wobbuffet, and even knowing how it would end, Roy somehow expected him to not win. The gym leader had caught on to his strategy in the end, but it had been too late. Roy had known it was over as soon as she called her last pokémon, Destiny Bond would make it an automatic win for Hughes, who still had his healthy Sneasel on his shoulder, and it did. 

The second badge almost went the same way, with his Wobbuffet cutting through the gym trainers like a hot knife through very frustrated butter, but he had run into trouble with the leader. Roy guessed that was why he was here now, to catch more team members for his third badge. 

He was brought out of his musings by rattling. Hughes was shaking a porcelain cabinet. “What are you doing?” 

“There could be a Sinistea in here” 

“No, there wouldn’t.” Hughes continued trying to apparently open the cabinet. “Stop, a Sinistea isn’t going to be in a locked cabinet.” 

He thankfully stopped trying to fucking destroy antique dishware, and that was another thing about the mansion. At first Roy had thought it was only the hall, but everything was almost perfectly preserved. There was water damage from the broken windows, but there was no tagging from graffiti, broken furniture or overturned drawers. He hadn’t had to look out for empty syringes and needles or stuff like that. 

“I don’t think anything’s here.” 

Apart from the Gengar, but Hughes was right about the rest of it. “Great, we can leave.” 

“No,” Hughes rolled his fucking eyes at him, the dick, “now we try upstairs.” 

Hughes stomped out, his Impidimp sticking out his tongue, but Ella started whispering. She turned to the cabinet, and when he looked back an ornate cup floated down from the top of it, but Roy hadn’t seen anything, nope. He quickly caught up with Hughes, who was already halfway up the stairs. 

“I thought you wimped out and threw yourself out of a window.” 

That was ridiculous. Roy wouldn’t defenestrate himself, if he wanted to leave he’d go through the door. “I’m going to drag you through the caves.” 

Hughes smiled sharply. “Sure thing.” 

The landing was decorated with a large and grimy portrait. In it were a man, a woman, a young girl and what looked like a Clefable, though the colours had darkened enough that he couldn’t make out the details. Hughes turned right, and Roy didn’t want to argue with him. The first door they opened was a bathroom, but the second- 

_ Books. _ The walls were lined with bookshelves, not to the ceiling, oh no, because there was a  _ second story _ with even more bookshelves. The library itself was bigger than Master Hawkeye’s, even though the middle of the space was empty except for an ornate wooden desk with a chair behind it and two plush-looking armchairs in front of it. The upholstery must have been a matching royal blue at one point, but it looked faded in the dusty sunlight streaming from the high twin windows. Still, at this point Roy wanted nothing more than to trace his fingers along the spines, find one that looked interesting, and curl up in one of the chairs, ghosts be damned. 

“Ugh.” Hughes muttered in front of him. “It’s just a library.” 

Hughes be damned too. “It’s not just a library, it’s huge!” 

“So it’s just a huge library, big deal.” 

“There could be information here about, uh,” shit, what did Hughes like? “Ghost pokémon?” 

He was met with an unimpressed smile. “Okay, we’ll stay here for a few minutes, nerd.” 

What the fuck was  _ that _ supposed to mean? Just because he liked reading, it didn’t mean he was a nerd. “That’s not-” 

But Hughes had already turned around and was slowly walking along the bookcases. Whatever. He turned to the nearest bookcase and started browsing. One book immediately caught his eye, with a light blue leather binding and lettering that was chipped and cracked gold. The front was just as pretty, with a golden illustration of what he guessed was a river. He opened and leafed through it. Gorgeous drawings on every other page, all featuring the Gyarados or Milotic line, or both. Throughout the book there were pages of coloured plates, in different styles from different regions. Heathcliff would definitely love this, Roy could take pictures for Heathcliff to show to his Feebas and help her evolve quicker. On the other hand, he could not do that, and not get three quarters of his team sweeped, but Heathcliff would probably say thanks, and that was nice. He could think about it later, it wasn’t like he had phone service here. He held the book under his arm and continued browsing, ignoring the mumblings and complaints behind him. This section seemed to be for in-depth studies about specific pokémon, and he grabbed a Kalosian one about the Charizard line that he couldn’t remember from his master’s library. 

He walked further into the library, to a bookcase decorated with wood carvings of swirling patterns and stars. There was a small glass case on one of the shelves with an irregular grey piece of rock inside, as well as a light green curved feather that looked like a Lunar Wing. It was extremely tempting, but the Gengar was still watching from the shadows, so he turned his attention to the books instead. A lot of them were in foreign languages and he passed the ones he couldn’t translate. Some he’d read, and others he’d never heard of before, except-

_ Dragons from Beyond. _

He gently pulled it out and stared at it. He’d asked Master Hawkeye about it after seeing references to it in a lot of appendices. He’d gotten a short answer: it was regulated. The only copies were under lock and key in the Amestris National Library, but here one was, in his hands. No special permission needed, no one would know that he had read it. 

“Can we move on?” 

Fuck. Shit. Hughes. He hid the book in the middle of the pile and turned around. “I didn’t go through all the shelves. Or read anything.” 

“Well, I didn’t come here to read, I came here to catch a ghost pokémon.” 

“Well, I didn’t come here to catch a ghost pokémon.” 

Hughes looked annoyed. “Fine, stay here and spend your time in a haunted house reading books, or whatever.” 

“I will, thanks.” 

He got an eye-roll as response, and Hughes turned around, heading for the door. “I’ll come back when I’m done exploring.” 

Roy rolled his eyes at his back, but thank fuck he was gone. Ella floated up, looking around, and made a questioning  _ woo?, _ so the Gengar was gone as well. He eyed the Lunar Wing, but he’d be in trouble if it came back and the glass case was empty. Reading a banned book was illegal enough, he supposed. He looked through the rest of the bookcase, taking a book about legendary magma pokémon that sounded interesting, then moved on to the next. He went through the first floor like that, until he couldn’t carry them and had to pile them on the table next to one of the armchairs. He then went up the creaky spiral stairs and browsed more there.

His upstairs haul also went onto the table, and he took a step back. He probably wouldn’t get through the pile of books until Hughes came back, but he could dream, and take pictures of the titles to see if any public library had them. The chair was too dusty to sit on, so he took off his coat, laid it down on the floor and sat on that, using the chair as a backrest. Fang joined him, lying down on his coat and leaning against him. He scratched behind the Umbreon’s ear and opened the first book from the pile. 

* * *

Oh, holy fuck.

He closed the book. The author’s description of Giratina still sent chills down his spine. The note under the horrifying illustration about it doing no justice to the true image was even more scary, but the other stories! A conversation with a Latias, using the author’s Alakazam as an interpreter, the exciting chapters compiling interviews with a tribe of people that worshipped Rayquaza, culminating in the author actually meeting and trying to talk to him, but only getting strange emotions as answers. The casualness of everything though, that’s what stumped him. Like, yeah,  _ of course _ there were giant flying snake dragon pokémon that defended the earth from extraterrestrial pokémon, duh, no further explanation needed about that. Simply read his other published work, about pokémon from outer space. Which exist. Obviously. 

But why it was banned, Roy had no fucking clue. If it had really happened, people needed to know about this, and if it was all made-up, a disclaimer at the beginning would have been enough to let people know that. What was the use of banning it from personal collections? 

He got up and stretched, fuck, how long had he been on the floor? He’d probably feel the crick in his neck for the rest of the week, and this was just the fifth book he went through. He eyed the still-unread pile. It would be nice if he could stay here for a few more days, but he only had food for two more days and he doubted this place had running water. He could stay at the campsite for as long as his food lasted, then travel back to Varsseberg to get more supplies and get back to camping. It would put him behind schedule for a week or so, but the caves weren’t going any- Hughes. 

There was no way Hughes would ever agree to this, plus he’d have questions about why Roy would find this library so interesting, and there was no way he was going to tell Hughes the truth. Where the fuck was he anyway? He’d expected to be interrupted by him halfway through the first chapter of  _ The Mysterious Rivers,  _ but he hadn’t heard a thing. Hughes hadn’t like, tripped and died somewhere, right? It didn’t feel too long ago since he’d left Roy alone, it could be that he caught his ghost pokémon and gotten out of here. It would be like him to take advantage of Roy and then skip out on his promise. 

How late was it anyway? The light was still streaming out of the windows, so it couldn’t have been that long. He rolled up his sleeve and- that couldn’t be right.  _ Seven hours? _ He’d been here for seven hours? But the light from the windows hadn’t moved across the library, it was still lighting the same spots on the floor. What the fuck was going on here? He walked to one of the windows and looked out. 

A backyard, but there was no sign of the weeds that had overgrown the front lawn. Instead it was perfectly manicured, with bushes in the shape of pokémon and colourful flower beds. It looked like a sunny afternoon, a few clouds drifting in the sky. The leaves and grass were moving in the breeze, as did the trees on the edge of the property, even the fountain worked, but there were no pokémon anywhere. There weren’t any Butterfree or Vivillon on the flowers, there were no Starly splashing in the water, it was just empty garden, with a sun that didn’t move. 

“What the actual fuck?” 

He had to find Hughes, if he was still here, and get out. He turned around and froze. There was a man on the second floor, leaning on the railing and looking down at him. Fucking fuck. Had he- Had he been there the entire time? He hadn’t seen anyone when he’d gone up to the second floor, maybe there was a hidden entrance? 

“Uhm, good evening?” 

The old man didn’t say anything, but pushed himself away from the balustrade and started walking along the bookcases, towards one of the stairs. Roy was still frozen in shock, but he noticed some things. The man had old clothing on, like the costumes in period dramas, and most importantly, Roy could see the books through him. A ghost. An actual real-life ghost. The ghost wasn’t looking at Roy anymore but above him, through one of the windows, and he gracefully descended the stairs and walked towards the desk. He passed in front of Roy without looking at him and mimed pulling out the chair, because it did not actually move, and sat on it, bending over the desk and writing something with an invisible pen. 

Roy breathed again and looked at Ella, perched on one of the armchairs, who was looking at the apparition with wide eyes. Fang had his teeth bared, but settled down when Roy shook his head at him. The man- The ghost looked a lot like the man in the portrait, it was probably only a memory of this place, not the thing that was responsible for the weird… pocket dimension? The words from the books started floating up in his mind. Spirit world, distortion world. It didn’t matter, he needed to get out of here. 

He walked over and put on his coat and grabbed his bag, but the books. He couldn’t just leave them on the table, the ghost couldn’t put them back. He put down his backpack and grabbed the books instead. He’d already been here for seven hours, two minutes wouldn’t make much of a difference, right? 

Ella floated after him while he silently sprinted through the library and jogged up the stairs. He’d come back for the books, maybe, when he was older and stronger and hopefully could get out of here first. He jogged downstairs and grabbed his bag for real now, closing the compartments and swinging it on his back. Fang stopped his scrutiny of the ghost to join him at the door. He half-expected it to be locked, for them to be stuck inside forever, but the door opened as easily as the first time. With one last look at the man writing at the desk, he closed it behind him. 

Ella had gone right, towards the stairs, with a soft  _ woo, _ but Fang had stuck his nose in the air and was waiting to the left of him. 

“Ella!” Roy called the Litwick back, and then a bit louder: “Hughes!” 

There was no response. He went left, following Fang and calling for Hughes. This part of the hallway was lined with portraits, only lit by Ella’s flame. He could have sworn some moved when he wasn’t looking directly at them, but it didn’t matter. There was a ghost writing in the library and it was a beautiful day outside. If he didn’t focus on Fang’s bright golden markings in front of him, he’d probably go fucking nuts. Fang stopped in front of one of the doors and scratched his paw against it. There was a short screech inside, and chills went down Roy’s spine before he realised that it was the warning cry of a Sneasel. He slowly opened the door and looked inside the room. 

It looked like a bedroom, with a bed, a wardrobe, and tons of little statues and knick-knacks on tables and shelves. There was a faded carpet and Hughes was… sleeping? On the floor? His Sneasel had jumped up and started chattering the moment Roy had opened the door, but his Impidimp was lying next to him. Sneasel was pointing at Hughes, at the pokéball in his hand and then at a dark corner of the room. 

“He found a pokéball in the room?” 

The Sneasel stared at him, then turned towards Fang, chattering and going through the same motions. Fang barked back and Sneasel nodded, then shook Hughes, who grumbled, but didn’t wake up. Shit, how long had Hughes been unconscious? 

Roy walked over and knelt next to him. He took the pokéball from Hughes’ hand and put it in Hughes' bag, then gently shooed the worried Sneasel away and turned Hughes around, pushing his glasses up his nose. His face looked a lot nicer when it didn’t have that smug smirk or a Sharpedo grin on it, but he didn’t want to drag Hughes out of this place by his legs. That would cost too much energy, and Hughes’ head hitting every stair on the way down might be bad too. He dug through his hip bag and pulled out a little cloth-wrapped vial. It was this or a wake-up slap, and he didn’t think Sneasel would appreciate that. He uncorked the vial and stuck it under his nose. 

For a second nothing happened, then Hughes’ face scrunched up and he started coughing and flailing his arms, pushing away the vial. Roy corked it and put it back in his bag while Hughes finished his coughing fit. 

“Ugh. What is that?” 

“Smelling salts.” 

“Well, it-” Hughes sat up suddenly and looked around. 

“Why were you asleep?” 

Hughes looked back at him. “Uh, I caught a Gastly.” 

“And then you fell asleep?” 

“No, Impi got too happy and broke a-” Hughes blinked at something on the cabinet. “Oh, I guess it’s fixed now. Anyway, a Gengar showed up and I think it used hypnosis. How long was I out?” 

“Uhm.” Uhm. “I don’t know when you passed out.” 

“Just a couple of minutes after- oh hey, buddy.” Sneasel had launched himself towards Hughes and was chittering into his neck. “Guess you must’ve been pretty worried.” He seemed to notice the Impidimp next to him and took a pokéball out of his bag, recalling him. “You’ve caused us enough trouble for now.” 

“Yeah, uh, we need to get out of here.” 

Hughes started to get his grin back, even though Roy could see he was still kind of shaken up. “Wow, scared of a little Gengar?” 

“That’s not-” His aunt always took ten seconds to breathe, but he grit his teeth. “Have you looked out of a window?” 

“No, why?” 

“Just-” Ella was slowly whispering and floating out of the room, he didn’t have time to explain. “Just look outside?” 

His grin kind of slackened and he nodded. Roy quickly got up and followed Ella into the hallway. He didn’t have to look around to find her, she was at the end of the hallway, her flame a bright purple. “Ella, come back here.”

Ella stopped floating figure eights to woo at him, but then started up again. The door she was lighting was even more ornate than the rest, from what he could make out in the flickering flame, with vines with different flowers carved on the post. His aunt would probably give him a smack on the back of his head for what he was going to do, but he went to where the Litwick was calling him. She whispered and perched on his shoulder when he was in front of the door. He’d just, peek inside and see what Ella was so excited about, then they could leave. He heard a muffled  _ yo, what the fuck!  _ behind him, so he quickly tried the brass handle, but it was locked. Ella’s wordless whispering became more urgent and louder in his ear. He didn’t know what she wanted, he really didn’t want to blow the door down, so he tried knocking. “Hello? Is someone in there?” 

“Mustang, what the- the heck is going on outside?” 

He turned around towards Hughes, who had come out of the room and was looking at him with a wide but shaky grin. “I don’t know, but we need to leave.” 

“Then- then let’s leave, the exit’s that way.” He pointed behind him, his grin becoming broader and tighter. 

“Yeah, I-” He shook his head and looked back towards the door. There was something on the other side. He needed to find what was on the other side, there was something that smelled good there, if she took it she could give her master answers. He tried the knob again, but it was still locked. He had a kit in his hip bag, he could try-

“Mustang!” 

Someone shook him and turned him around. Hughes? He was dragging him away from the room, from the answer, and he was suddenly snapped out of it. What answer? A good smell? He barely smelled anything through the dust. 

“Hey, you with me?” Hughes was holding his arms, a tight smile on his face. 

“I’m fine.” 

Hughes didn’t seem any less worried by that, he looked at something over Roy’s shoulder and Roy looked back too. Ella was in front of the door again, whispering. 

“Ella, come on, we’re leaving.” 

Ella’s flame became brighter and she let out a sorrowful  _ woo. _

“If we can’t get out by going through the front door, we’ll try this, okay?” 

Ella levitated silently for a second, then whispered and floated over. Hughes let go of his arms and took a few steps back, but something was happening behind Hughes, a shadow becoming larger and- “Behind you!” 

The Sneasel noticed the Gengar before Hughes did. He screeched loudly and leapt off of Hughes’ shoulder with gleaming claws. Before Roy could blink a punch struck from the shadow, straight to Sneasel’s stomach. He made an awful wheezing sound and was thrown on the floor, where he collapsed into a heap. Oh, fuck. 

“Sneasel!” 

Hughes dove after him and Roy was frozen. Hughes picked him up, and thank fuck he was still moving, but the Gengar was still there, looming and blocking the hallway, its grin becoming wider. Right, he needed to act. 

“Ella, use Shadow Ball! Fang, Copycat!” 

Ella rose up, gathering dark purple energy in front of her, and Fang had jumped in front of him, running towards the Gengar, his markings dark. There was a chance Gengar would attack again, but Umbreon were a lot tougher than Sneasel, and even then it couldn’t avoid the Shadow Ball. Fang’s rings glowed when he leaped, and Ella released the dark ball of energy, shooting it across the hall towards the still-smiling Gengar. Just when Fang’s copied Sucker-Punch was about to make contact, it sank down into the shadows, leaving Fang to harmlessly pass over it and the Shadow Ball to continue down the hallway, dissipating into nothing. 

Fang skidded to a halt and turned around, snarling, but the Gengar didn’t get up. The shadow slunk under one of the doors, but Roy couldn’t let his guard down. “If it comes back, Snarl and another Shadow Ball, okay?” 

Fang bared his teeth in agreement, but Hughes stood up, Sneasel in his arms. “Let’s try to leave while it’s gone.” 

Hughes looked as white as a sheet. Roy nodded and Hughes stumbled a few steps through the hall, towards Fang, when he suddenly froze.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, we didn’t-” 

Who was he- fuck, the ghost. Roy lunged forward and pushed Hughes against the wall, pressing himself next to him. The man looked a lot older now, wearing a nightgown with a dark dressing gown over it. He held a lit candle holder in his see-through hand and shuffled through the hall, centimeters away from them. Litwick and Hughes were both whispering, though Roy could at least understand his  _ whatthefuckwhatthefuck’s. _ The man went to the end of the hallway and opened the ornate door, passing through the real thing and disappearing inside. 

“Uh, okay?” Hughes giggled next to him. “Okay.” 

Hughes was still staring wide-eyed at the door, so Roy tugged him towards the stairs, the portrait of the ghost and his family and pokémon watching over it. He expected the Gengar to catch up with them, but the way was clear. Fang bounded down the stairs and Hughes followed a lot more carefully. Roy looked back, there was nothing where they’d come from, but Ella had left him again and was floating in front of the portrait, looking at it. 

“Ella, come on!” 

She thankfully didn’t make a fuss, turning around and following him down the stairs. Hughes was already at the door, but Fang was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. He growled suddenly at something behind him, but Roy didn’t stop until he was at the door, then turned around. The Gengar was at the top of the stairs, smiling and looking down. Ella and Fang looked ready to fight, but Hughes had opened the door, and the sound of Kricketune filled the hall. Thank Arceus. Thank them a hundred fucking times. 

“Ella, Fang, let’s go!” 

Fang barked and slowly backed up, then turned around and sprinted through the door. Ella quickly moved backwards as well, keeping an eye on the Gengar the entire way. Roy held open the door, closing it in front of him when Ella floated by, out of the dusty nightmare and into a spring evening. 

* * *

Roy had thought it was done, that now he could be calm and think things over, but no. Thank fuck they could use the satellite on their phone to find a route to the campsite, otherwise Hughes would have been even more insufferable than he already was. He’d taken one look at his watch and grinned angrily at Roy, but he hadn’t said anything then. Probably because Roy was the only one with a light, since his lantern was out of power, having been on during his nap. He’d protested about Ella, even though they’d know when she would be leading them the wrong way and then he constantly complained about it almost being dark, and about being hungry. 

“Were the books at least worth it?” 

Roy breathed and followed the map on his phone, making sure it was the same way Ella was going. Just a few more minutes, he’d pee, make something to eat, apologize to Fuo for not training with him, brush his teeth and  _ sleep. _ Just when Hughes made his fifth complaint about the woods, something walked onto the dirt path.

The fading light of dusk showed a large red and yellow shell, and blank eyes. They really didn’t need this right now, though maybe it was just lost or crossing to get to the other side. That hope was dashed when it turned to face them, snapping its pincers. 

“We don’t want trouble, just let us pass.” 

The Parasect didn’t seem to care, it snapped again and crouched down, then popped up, and Roy could see something glittering in the air above it. Of fucking course. 

“Don’t get too close to it.” But the cloud had already reached Ella, who was slowly floating down. “Ella, use Flame Burst!” 

Her flame flickered red for a second, before going back to purple, fuck. Fuck, fuck,  _ fuck. _ The Parasect crept forward, swiping its claws at Ella, but thank fuck, they harmlessly passed through her. “Ella!” 

Her flame glowed red again, this time staying, and the Parasect scuttled back, but it was too late. A fire lept from Ella, towards the Parasect, hitting it and making it slump down, the spore particles falling down too. Roy ran forward and grabbed Ella, turning her around. She was awake, but her whispering was soft and her light low. 

He picked her up, cradling her in his arms, and checked his phone. They were barely a hundred meters from the campsite. Fang barked, his markings glowing a bright gold, as if to make up for Ella’s lack of light, but Roy shook his head. He would have been faster, but wasn’t much good if any other insect pokémon decided to show itself. If push came to shove, he’d call on Fuo, but doing that now would make him annoyed, and right now he wanted to make it to the campsite without any fuss. 

“Hey, is she…” 

Roy turned around, and if he didn’t know any better he’d think Hughes looked worried. “She’s paralyzed.” Hughes moved so his glasses were reflecting the light, and Roy swallowed. “We should keep moving.” 

“Yeah, the Parasect are already out.” 

Roy turned around again and started walking. He didn’t need Hughes’ dumb fucking face or dumb fucking snark right now or right  _ ever. _ A minute later and finally, there was a sign and a path to the right, the campsite looking just like how he left it, but that was also an issue. Where was Hughes’ tent? Hadn’t he pitched his before he started training in the forest? 

“Where’s your tent?” 

Hughes smirked. “I thought I had enough time before dark to set it up.” 

Fucker. His tent was too small for two people, but maybe if he took the inner tent out, they could lay their sleeping mats against each other on the tarp. It would stick out at the edges, but the rest of the week was supposed to be dry, so rain wasn’t a-

“You know, we should get the tent, you have fire-types, you can defend yourself against bugs.” 

He had  _ had it. _

“I was fucking figuring out how we’d both fucking fit in my shitty-ass tent, but go a-fucking-head and sleep outside, you piece of shit.” 

Hughes’ dumb fucking smirk was finally off his face, and he felt a slight bit of pleasure that he’d finally manage to make the asshole speechless. 

“Don’t fucking demand shit from me, it’s your fucking fault, you know? Your dumb ass wanted to fight ghost pokémon with a Sneasel that knows one entire dark-type move, a fucking Wobbuffet and a barely-trained Impidimp. You spent the entire fucking walk blaming  _ me, _ but if I hadn’t been there, you would have still been on the fucking floor, sleeping for fuck knows how long, with only your fucking Sneasel protecting you.” Fuck, his eyes were burning. “You could have  _ died  _ there, and no one would have known!” 

Hughes was staring at him wide-eyed. Good, let the fucker  _ think _ for a sec- 

“Wow.” The smirk was crawling back. “It’s like you actually-” 

His breath stuck in his throat for a moment. “Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear anything from you unless it’s two words, two fucking words, or you can choke on your fucking tent.”

“Two words?” 

“Yeah, and they’re not  _ Fuck you.” _

“Well, how-” But Roy had turned around and stomped to his tent, Fang on his heels. He gently put Ella down in front of it and dug through his bag for a paralyze heal. 

“Hey, how am I supposed to put my tent up in the dark!” 

“Figure it out your-fucking-self.” He’d found a heal and applied it to Ella. She blinked and perked up a bit, floating a few centimeters above the grass. She was fine, she was going to be okay. At this moment he wanted nothing more than to call his aunt, but Hughes was still here. He took a few unsteady breaths and watched from the corner of his eye as Hughes took a storage capsule from his bag, oh, of course the asshole had a fucking storage capsule for his fucking tent, did everyone in this fucking gym challenge shove their tent into a tiny ball except for him? At least Hughes’ wasn’t set up immediately, which he took some pleasure in. 

He zipped open his tent and put his bag down, then opened the inner tent and went inside. Arceus damn it, his day had started so well, one of Huli’s tails had split, she’d made a ton of progress with her ember, but he’d just walked the wrong way, and came across that asshole. 

He was hungry, but whatever the fuck, he’d jam two muesli bars into his fucking mouth, pee and go the fuck to sleep. That annoying asshole was still trying to pitch his tent in the fucking dark, fucker. Two words. Had his parents or whoever never taught him any manners? He wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, he didn’t need this. 

“Uh, Mustang?” 

He squeezed his eyes shut. “What.” 

“I’m... sorry?” 

He turned around. Hughes was standing in front of his tent, and he  _ looked _ apologetic. “For what?”

Roy couldn’t see Hughes’ eyes through his glasses, but he frowned. “Uh, being stupid?” 

“Anything specific?” 

The Sneasel in Hughes’ arms moved to climb on his shoulder and Hughes moved to support him. He was looking a lot better now, even though he was moving slowly. “Dragging you into the mansion, I guess?” 

He breathed in and lifted his eyebrow. “You guess?” 

“I’m sorry for dragging you into the mansion, okay?” 

“Okay.” 

“Great.” Hughes fidgeted. “Can you help me set up my tent?”

Roy swallowed. “Sure, I’m glad you asked.” A muscle in Hughes’ jaw twitched and Roy figured that was enough. He reached further into the tent and grabbed the lantern there. He got out, stood up and pretended to dust himself off.

“You had a light the entire time?” 

“No,” he turned it on and walked past Hughes towards the mess of poles and fabric, “I wasn’t planning on going into a haunted house.” 

Hughes muttered something behind him, but he did the adult thing and ignored it. 

It wasn’t even cloudy or anything, so Roy didn’t know why Hughes would have such an issue with setting up his tent, but with the lantern and Ella it was even easier. Hughes had been quiet until the last tent pegs were in the ground, when he asked if Roy was hungry. He’d then taken two small cans of soup from his bag, as well as a small gas burner and a pan. 

Roy went back to his tent to grab his stool and sit across from Hughes. The evenings could still get kind of chilly, but the burner gave off some heat. He’d checked his phone when they’d gotten out, but apart from some emails about online sales and general messages in the bar’s group chat he hadn’t gotten anything while he’d been reading. He did have a few new messages now, one from, oh, from Heathcliff. When he opened it, it was another picture of his Feebas, and he quickly typed a  _ :o pretty!! _ back. Before he could think about it more, he’d sent a message about coming across a cool book. 

“Who’re you texting?” 

Hughes was looking at him over the pan, his glasses reflecting the light of… something.

“A friend.” 

“A female friend?” 

“No.” 

Hughes hummed like he didn’t believe him, and Roy rolled his eyes and went back to his phone. He selected the pictures and sent them with the title of the book. Heathcliff was a friend, he was nice and he didn’t talk a lot, but he always let Roy know about new things and he was supportive, and that was nice. Roy had gone into this challenge for a different reason than almost everyone else, and so had Heathcliff. He checked on his other message. Aunt Chris was asking how he was doing. The lump in his throat appeared again, but he swallowed it down and sent back a picture of Huli, now with three tails. She’d probably see through it, she always did. 

Hughes cleared his throat. “Soup’s done.” 

He ladled the tomato soup into a disposable bowl and handed it to Roy, filling another for himself. They sat there silently, which was awkward, but the soup was okay. Fang was begging next to him and he fished out a meatball for him. Hughes shifted. 

“I wouldn’t have gone in if you hadn’t gone with me.” Hughes stared into his soup, eyes still hidden behind his glasses. “Your Litwick’s in a dusk ball, if it had been bred it would’ve been in a normal or a premier ball. Your familiarity with it - you caught it yourself, didn’t you?” 

He had a slight idea where Hughes was going with this, so he nodded. 

Hughes nodded back. “Right, and the way you talked about ghost pokémon before we went in there, about the Litwick and stuff. You’re obviously not scared of ‘em.” He pointed up with his spork, where Ella was doing that cute thing where she aimlessly floated around and made wooing sounds. “And, I mean, I watched your battles, your Charmeleon listens to you, that’s not something everyone can say. All I’m saying is, that if I had to make a list of challengers who I’d enter a haunted mansion with, you’d be on that list.” 

Wow, that was… strangely touching. “Thanks?” 

“You’re welcome.” Okay, now he was being snarky again.

They finished the soup in silence and Roy went back to his tent, grabbing his toiletry bag and heading to the small sanitary building. When he got out Fang was running around in circles and Ella was sitting in front of his tent. 

“Hey.” He petted her, ignoring the strange waxy feeling. “You did great.” 

She closed her eyes and cooed at him. He recalled her into her dusk ball and put the containment cap around it. He turned around to call Fang, but Hughes was standing awkwardly in front of him, clutching his elbow and avoiding Roy’s eyes. 

“I was thinking, it’s fine if you stay in my tent tonight, since you’ll probably get nightmares.” 

Since  _ he’d _ get nightmares? Why would Hughes think-  _ Oh. _ Okay. 

“Right, thanks.” 

Hughes nodded and quickly walked to the sanitary building. Dumbass. 

He’d dragged his sleeping bag and mat to Hughes’ tent when he came back from the building. Fang was done with running around and was grooming Sneasel, who was chattering softly. Hughes looked at Roy like he didn’t really believe he was there, but opened the tent anyway, climbing inside, and Roy followed him. Maybe he should save up some money for a two-person tent, this kind of felt like a living space instead of a sleep space. 

He slid into his sleeping bag and checked his phone again. Another two messages, one a short  _ i’m calling tomorrow _ that he ignored and the other an even shorter  _ thanks. _ He felt a blush creep up and sent a quick  _ no prob _ back. 

“Your friend?” Hughes was looking at him weirdly.

He was too tired to figure out what Hughes’ stupid deal was. “Yes.” 

Hughes stared at him for another second, then got into his sleeping bag and turned off the light. “Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight.” 

Fang settled near his feet, and he fell asleep to the sound of Zubat squeaks and the rustling of leaves. 

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fic maybe a week ago, and I went into some kind of trance and ended up with something like this, excellently beta'd by [Ganymeme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ganymeme/pseuds/Ganymeme)! Without you there would be fabric vaguely lying on chairs. 
> 
> [Here's](https://stiekemekat.tumblr.com/post/185473536359/a-very-very-cute-commission-i-got-from) some very cute art of Roy before he got his Vulpix, commissioned a while ago, but I love it and I will plug it any chance I get.
> 
> I may add a second chapter to this, about their trip through the caves? But that can uhhhh take a while 😅😅, so in the meantime come whisper spookily at me on [my tumblr](http://www.stiekemekat.tumblr.com), I try to respond to all comments and kudos are appreciated!


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